Rhonda Chadwick, owner of H2C medical marijuana dispensary talks about how marijuana helps to fight cancer cells as she participates in a peaceful assembly in front of Vallejo City Hall on Thursday. Several dispensary owners tried to pay almost $50,000 in taxes to the city, but the money wasn’t accepted.
CHRIS RILEY—VALLEJO TIMES-HERALD

Medical marijuana dispensary owners along with lawyer James Anthony, left, head into Vallejo City Hall in an effort to pay almost $50,000 in taxes. The money was not accepted.
CHRIS RILEY—VALLEJO TIMES-HERALD

Several Vallejo medical marijuana dispensary owners were turned away from City Hall Thursday as they attempted to pay their Measure C taxes.

With the assistance of James Anthony, a political consultant and lawyer, four dispensary owners made their way to the ground floor of City Hall to pay $50,000 in taxes and attempt to renew their respective Measure C tax certificates.

“As of January 13, 2015, the City of Vallejo City Council directed city staff to no longer accept medical marijuana monthly tax returns or any tax payments related to medical marijuana,” read a city employee from a prepared statement sheet. “In addition, the City of Vallejo will no longer issue new or renew business licence tax certificates for medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I do not have the authority to accept any payments or tax returns (pertaining to medical marijuana),” the employee added.

In 2011, city voters approved Measure C, which imposes a business license tax rate of 10 percent on the sales of medical marijuana products within the city.

During a January meeting, the city council voted 5-2 to close all medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, whether the dispensaries were complying with the Measure C tax or not.

Prior to their attempt to pay the tax, other MMD owners met on the steps of City Hall to protest the council’s decision.

“You want a better Vallejo, a safer Vallejo, a more prosperous Vallejo, I think the mayor would agree to all those things,” said Anthony as he addressed the group. “I just think for some reason, he thinks medical cannabis is an illegal drug that is bad for Vallejo and we all know that’s not true.

“Medical cannabis is good for Vallejo, it’s good for individual patients, it’s good for people who need jobs. There are over 150 full-time jobs with medical cannabis in Vallejo. It’s good for the city tax revenue.”

Anthony said that the next step will be for a special election to be called in November to address the council’s vote to close all of the MMDs in the city.

“We are compliant, we’re licensed, we’re tax payers. In fact, here is my next tax payment collected that I have collected from all these patients that are suffering from illnesses,” said MMD owner Rhonda Chadwick as she held onto a blue money purse.

Chadwick, who owns H2C on Wilson Avenue, said that she will fight for her patients, no matter what.

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“I’m going to do what my lawyers and the law says that I need to do,” she said about whether she will close H2C after the council’s decision. “But you can believe that I will fight with my last breath to keep this in existence.”

“(I’m) going to do whatever my lawyer tells me to do but I struggle with that option,” Hannigan said. “What are people going to do about their medicine? No one is going to drive down to Richmond or Oakland.”

Hannigan said that the MMDs paying the Measure C tax welcome zoning and regulation from the city.

He also produced a binder full of documents from the city over the years.

“We’ve been through inspections, where they (the city) has signed off,” Hannigan said as he pointed to a document from the city. “We have been in compliance for the last three years. Compliance allows us to pay the tax so the money they have been collecting from us is essentially verification (from the city).”

Also on hand were members of the Solano AIDS Coalition in support of the MMDs.

“Medical marijuana helps AIDS patients to eat and to have better lives,” said SAC president Mario Saucedo.

Izzy Drumgoole, vice president of SAC, said that cannabis helps AIDS patients by alleviating the side effects of the medications.

Speaking on the benefits of medical marijuana was Reisa Nelson-Love, who was diagnosed in October 2007 with breast cancer.

She said that at one point, she had two types of cancer in one of her breasts.

“After a bilateral mastectomy, I was prescribed different drugs to use, non-nausea medications, pain medication; however, I didn’t use anything but cannabis,” Nelson-Love said. “It gave me an appetite, it gave me a nice disposition.

“We need cannabis. If not in Vallejo, where do sick patients go?” she added. “We urge the mayor to keep cannabis in Vallejo.”

Those dispensaries in attendance are part of a coalition calling themselves the Measure C Eleven, the 11 dispensaries that opened before the 2013 moratorium by the city on the issuance of new Measure C tax certificates.

According to city staff, Measure C did not legalize the zoning of MMDs in the Vallejo Municipal Code and thus, in 2013 the council adopted a moratorium which re-stated that MMDs are not allowed in any zone of the city and forbade city staff from issuing new Measure C tax certificates.

The moratorium was extended in April 2014 and was set to expire in April of this year. At the January meeting, the council extended the moratorium and voted to refuse acceptance of Measure C taxes.

“The city council has given staff clear direction to begin enforcement against illegal MMDs,” wrote city attorney Claudia Quintana in an email Thursday afternoon. “All MMDs, including those who are attempting to pay the tax, are currently prohibited. Measure C recognized the city’s ability to enforce its laws, and each MMD tax certificate explicitly warns that it does not convey any right to any MMD to operate.

“In the next two months the council will be considering a regulatory scheme which would allow a limited number of MMDs to operate,” she wrote. “We hope that this future legislation will bring clarity to all citizens on this issue.”